Science and Inquiry discussion

Not a Drill: SETI Is Investigating a Possible Extraterrestrial Signal From Deep Space
http://observer.com/2016/08/not-a-dri...

http://www.geekwire.com/2016/signal-s...

It is a very small chance but say perhaps it is from an alien technology then would you want to contact them or would knowing that they are out there be good enough? My only issue with contacting them is that our world governments have hard enough time working with each other and I think that the odds of us flubbing this first contact up is pretty good. With that said and if they have a more advanced technology then .....Zap!!!!....too bad for us.

Precisely, the Novel written by great astronomer Carl Sagan, Contact!

Interesting indeed!

Without a second spike, it is just a blip. It was certainly a high energy event, but that is all that can be said with certainty.

If we are going to make conjectures about an alien lifeform we can rule out most fears.

1.) The articles cited made no mention of an associated dimming of the star. This may mean that the proposed society did not need to draw enough power for an omnidirectional signal. If it was a directional signal, the energy requirements may have been within our abilities to muster. So there there is no cause to assume that the proposed society is signifigantly more technologically advanced than ourselves.
2.) The "signal" originated 95 light years away, which means that it was "sent" in c. 1921. There was no signifgant emf produced by us 95 years prior to that, so it seems unlikely that they were saying, "Hi!" At best they detected the Earth like we detect exoplanets, and sent a signal just to see if anyone is home.
3.) If they are out there, answering poses minimal risk, because they are almost a century away at light speed. At our speeds they are millenia away. So odds are we'll never meet in person. As for a conversation, it'll take you 185 years for our posterity to get an answer. National politics don't really matter.

It would be nice to find out that we are not alone. If nothing else it would resolve the Fermi Paradox without the extinction of the human race.

Um I kinda wanted to hop in here and post this since I saw it today and thought it was funny.... I'm new here though so you know just let me know if this bit is more serious just though hey look possibly a laugh...https://www.buzzfeed.com/juliareinste...